The Cartographers’ Guild is a forum created by and for map makers and aficionados, a place where every aspect of cartography can be admired, examined, learned, and discussed. Our membership consists of professional designers and artists, hobbyists, and amateurs—all are welcome to join and participate in the quest for cartographic skill and knowledge.

Although we specialize in maps of fictional realms, as commonly used in both novels and games (both tabletop and role-playing), many Guild members are also proficient in historical and contemporary maps. Likewise, we specialize in computer-assisted cartography (such as with GIMP, Adobe apps, Campaign Cartographer, Dundjinni, etc.), although many members here also have interest in maps drafted by hand.

If this is your first visit, be sure to check out the FAQ. You will have to register before you can post or view full size images in the forums.

Map of Karpentor - suggestions?

Greetings to all.

I have been a long time fan of the Cartgographers Guild, and used several tutorials from this site on more than one occasion. Never posted anything, though.

Now I am finalizing a work in progress, the map of Karpentor, and would like to ask you what do you think of it: if you have suggestions on how to improve its appearance and eye-appeal. I think most of you will instantly recognize the style, and which tutorials have been my main source of inspiration for this map - I do so love parchment maps.

If you find some of the text odd - that's because it's written in portuguese.

A suggestion on your label locations. I'm guessing the larger ones (like Zerilia) are regions/countries even though they are dropped out in the water. I'd suggest having these labels over the land area they label.

Also, I find the title font a bit hard to read as some of the finer lines get lost in the background texture. Maybe making it bold would help?

The white in the scale bar really jumps out, try toning it down a bit.

There's one part of this map that looks really bad to my eyes. It's the way the continent fades off near the northwest corner. I guess the map is supposed to show only a part of a larger landmass, and you're trying to represent the line where it's cut off by making it blurry? To me this seems a rather ugly solution, and also destroys the appearance of a hand-painted map on a sheet of parchment.

Perhaps instead of this blurring, you could simply have the colored land end at the green border, but have visible coastlines extend further northwest. Or you could have it filled with a different color and leave out all the map features from that part; just a blank field of gray or something. You could also place a label in there, to explicitly inform the viewer that the landmass is supposed to continue but is not represented in detail past that border.

Another, perhaps more creative way would be to cut the parchment itself by the border.

I think it looks nice but for me, the texture is a bit too striking. Perhaps lowing the opacity (if possible) so it's a touch more subtle might work. Also, the green border lines look a little too wide and might benefit from being in a slightly different style, perhaps a dashed line or something.

I agree about the texture. It looks more like the map was painted on sandstone than parchment. Just reducing the opacity, or if possible, the level of bump would help.

You should remove the sea serpent icon from this thread—ProFantasy's license forbids redistribution of their artwork.

The teeny-tiny blackletter font is still hard to read. A general rule of thumb is the smaller the text, the less decorative it can be. Blackletter tends to be difficult even at normal sizes, for those who aren't used to seeing it.